Mass Effect 2

[...] Anderson meeting secretly with someone in a Cerberus uniform on the presidium [...]

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Maybe I should watch it again, but I thought that was supposed to have been Shepard, tying in with the dossier notes. From what I could make out in the video, the Cerberus operative looked enough like my Shepard. Can anyone confirm if, as a female Shepard, the person in the video is male on your run as well?

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It's always the same male Cerberus operative. So Anderson definitely was in contact with them at some point.

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It could be that Anderson was talking to one of Shepard's crew, trying to get info on what you were doing in order to clear your name.

[...] In the end I chose to look at it in terms of the end result and sacrificed the right of the heretics to self determination in order to give the total population of the galaxy a marginally better chance of surviving the Reaper invasion. [...]

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Same choice I made, for the same reason. Likewise, I did my best to dissuade the quarian Admirality to neither renew war against the geth nor seek to retake Rannoch, but rather to instead maintain the Flotilla.

It could be that Anderson was talking to one of Shepard's crew, trying to get info on what you were doing in order to clear your name.

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Interesting that you bring up that possibility. Ever since finishing the game and telling the Illusive Man to stuff it, I've wondered how my Shepard can trust the Cerberus crew. Joker, Doctor Chakwas, and the suicide team recruits are all above reproach, but who knows whether the rank-and-file crew are loyal to Shepard or to Cerberus?

^ Based on overhearing the various crew dialogues and from talking to the cook and the two engineers, I get the impression that the crew were mostly recruited because they had a specific and invested interest in what the Collectors were doing to the colonies. If there was any fanatical die-hard Cerberus types on the crew it was Miranda and I'm pretty sure my Femshep brought her on side since she also told IM to go fudge himself.

Same choice I made, for the same reason. Likewise, I did my best to dissuade the quarian Admirality to neither renew war against the geth nor seek to retake Rannoch, but rather to instead maintain the Flotilla.

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I honestly can't remember exactly what I did in that regard on my first play-through. I think I wished them luck in getting back their homeworld but didn't particularly encourage them into war with the Geth. Actually I think it was that which also influenced my decision to brainwash the heretics.

It could be that Anderson was talking to one of Shepard's crew, trying to get info on what you were doing in order to clear your name.

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Yeah and that Asari Matriarch was just gazing forlornly at a framed photo of Liara because they were just friends . . . but who here seriously believes that?
The rules of circumstantial evidence doesn't normally apply to an artificially and deliberately constructed narrative.

^I'd say that analysis is fairly accurate. Part of the appeal for me at least is how FemShep isn't pushed as either one of the two usual female protagonist archetypes; a "sexy babe" or a "tough bitch" - they left that to Miranda and Jack respectively. While it may or may not have been specifically intended, the result was, I think, a much more mature female protagonist than video games have ever had. No matter how you play, you never doubt that she's a soldier or forget that there's a "real" person in that armour.

Of course the flip side to that argument is that men have given up on trying to write "real" women entirely and so all we're left with is a male protagonist with a higher voice.

It's odd, because probably the "softest" that Shepard ever gets is during her romance with Thane. It almost seems like an entirely different character.

Oh, that said, I do find the female Shepard to be the more interesting character. Certainly her breakdown/moment of doubt in ME1 had much more impact that the male version of that scene. There just aren't that many moments in ME2 where either version of Shepard is vulnerable, so we're left with having the other characters try to sell the lead... and the love interests for the male Shepard are just very predictable.

I haven't played ME2 since a couple of weeks after launch, so I didn't play any of the DLC until yesterday when I downloaded it all and had a short ME binge.

Kasumi: Her mission is okay, but not worth the price, the best thing about it was seeing the Statue of Liberty's head in a private vault. It wasn't helped by the fact that I completely forgot the game's mechanics and kept running around ineffectually with a machine-gun wondering why it wasn't killing people. Eventually, I relearned the value of using cover and the pistol. Kasumi's dialogue options are disappointing, for paid DLC I was expecting some conversations back on the ship, not a Zaeed-style "I'll tell you all about my possessions while you stand there silently" conversations.

Firewalker: It's a tech demo, but it's free and it's fun enough, so it gets a pass. It feels like I'm playing a PS1 era vehicle platform game type thing. It's a bit too easy, what with the tank magically healing itself, and I was left thinking that the MAKO was more strategic than this, but had the misfortune of horrible controls.

Overlord: It's like one of ME1's side missions, but on steroids. The story is a little obvious, and it's convenient how the bad guy is the only one to survive, but there's some good, creepy moments, and the ending is a visual treat. The biggest problem with this DLC is that it comes from nowhere and probably goes nowhere. Otherwise, I liked it.

Shadow Broker:

Clearly the best of the DLC so far, the mission is exciting, funny and the consequences are huge. I'm guessing that Liara may be the mission-giver in ME3 and that the station will be your base of operations, and the possibility of an information war between her and Cerberus gets me excited.

By main problem with the DLC isn't with the DLC, but with myself. I played it with Benedict Sheppard, and he hooked up with Ashley, so I missed out on the sex scene, it seems. Hopefully I'll have time soon to play it as Denise Sheppard and see some trans-species lesbian action.

What's this about a scene on the Normandy? When I played it, it went from killing the Asari Spectre directly to landing on the Shadow Broker's base.

Just finished today with a read through of all the dossiers and video playbacks. Some funny stuff in there, especially that reporter getting punched by a krogan. She just never learns, does she?

Overall, I though the Shadow Broker DLC was a good addition, but I like the Overlord one better. There was more to do (at least during the mission itself).

As for not having the other squad members say anything during the DLC missions, I will admit that is a little annoying. During the Overlord one, I specifically brought Tali along with me to see what kind of snarky comments she would be making about trying to control geth. Alas...

However, I did actually get a line from Thane (I had him and Legion with me at the time) when

the office tower on Illium exploded. Granted, it was something to the effect of "well, that's not good". Legion stayed silent the whole time though, along with Kasumi when we raided the Shadow Broker's ship.

What's this about a scene on the Normandy? When I played it, it went from killing the Asari Spectre directly to landing on the Shadow Broker's base.

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If you talk to Liara at the end when you're wandering about the Shadow Broker's office, you'll have an opportunity to invite her back to the ship and the two of you will have a chat in Shepard's quarters. That's as far as mine went, but I didn't romance Liara in ME1 with that particular Shepard, so I don't know if anything changes if you do that and/or remain faithful to her in ME2.

Just finished today with a read through of all the dossiers and video playbacks. Some funny stuff in there, especially that reporter getting punched by a krogan. She just never learns, does she?

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If you think it was funny seeing her get punched by a krogan, log into the game tomorrow and watch the new video. I was amused by the krogan, but the second one I saw literally made me laugh aloud.

TheGodBen:

All you missed with Benedict not having romanced Liara was a very touching discussion about how Shepard will be right in the middle of the fray when the Reapers arrive, and Shepard saying that he'll need something special to come back for if he's going to promise Liara to always come back. No sex scene.

On another note, I started a new playthrough yesterday. I haven't decided on all of the specifics yet, but my basic plan is to have a very dark universe headed into ME3 by the end of this save file. To that end, I started it as a new ME2 character instead of importing an ME1 save, so that the Council and Destiny Ascendant were destroyed, and Udina heads up a new human-led Council. I do know that I plan to turn over the evidence about Tali's father this time, thereby causing uproar among the quarians and I plan to encourage the Admiralty to seek to reclaim Rannoch. I plan on making my ship upgrade decisions based purely on whom I don't want to see die in the Omega 4 Relay Battle, and I'm going to do the same in deciding which loyalty missions to undertake. I'm expecting that I'll destroy the geth heretics this time around, instead of reprogramming. The hardest point is going to be deciding which squad members to keep alive, particularly since I need at least one of them to live in order for Shepard to survive. This also gives me a great opportunity to do my first run with all of the DLC installed, so that I can take those missions on as a regular part of my playthrough (excluding LotSB, which I anticipate doing after the game again due to dialogue tilted towards that assumption).

After I finish this run, I'm considering going on an "ultimate" Dragon Age: Origins run or continuing an ME1 save file that I played through a couple months ago. With that run, I made decisions based on what we knew were the possible outcomes in ME2 with an eye towards the best possible future - ideally one united to stand against the Reapers side-by-side. I have yet to actually import that save to start the ME2 portion of the idea. Choices, choices... all with Halo Reach looming on Tuesday.

All you missed with Benedict not having romanced Liara was a very touching discussion about how Shepard will be right in the middle of the fray when the Reapers arrive, and Shepard saying that he'll need something special to come back for if he's going to promise Liara to always come back. No sex scene.

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Technically there is a sex scene, you just don't get to see anything. I can't speak for anyone else's experience but Jade Shepard had a little talk about settling down and having lots of little blue children (direct quote) after the Reaper threat is sorted, then they both went all touchy feely and Liara's eye went black and it cuts to later on. So it's implicit, but you don't actually see anything.

Just finished today with a read through of all the dossiers and video playbacks. Some funny stuff in there, especially that reporter getting punched by a krogan. She just never learns, does she?

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It gets better! If you go to another planet and come back there's another video of her jutting kicked in the shin by a Volus. Probably more too, but so far I've only been back the once.

However, I did actually get a line from Thane (I had him and Legion with me at the time) when

the office tower on Illium exploded. Granted, it was something to the effect of "well, that's not good". Legion stayed silent the whole time though, along with Kasumi when we raided the Shadow Broker's ship.

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I had Tali with me and she just exclaimed "Keelah!" So I'd say that it's just using some pre-existing exclamation linefrom each character.

On another note, I started a new playthrough yesterday. I haven't decided on all of the specifics yet, but my basic plan is to have a very dark universe headed into ME3 by the end of this save file. To that end, I started it as a new ME2 character instead of importing an ME1 save, so that the Council and Destiny Ascendant were destroyed, and Udina heads up a new human-led Council. I do know that I plan to turn over the evidence about Tali's father this time, thereby causing uproar among the quarians and I plan to encourage the Admiralty to seek to reclaim Rannoch. I plan on making my ship upgrade decisions based purely on whom I don't want to see die in the Omega 4 Relay Battle, and I'm going to do the same in deciding which loyalty missions to undertake. I'm expecting that I'll destroy the geth heretics this time around, instead of reprogramming. The hardest point is going to be deciding which squad members to keep alive, particularly since I need at least one of them to live in order for Shepard to survive. This also gives me a great opportunity to do my first run with all of the DLC installed, so that I can take those missions on as a regular part of my playthrough (excluding LotSB, which I anticipate doing after the game again due to dialogue tilted towards that assumption).

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I'm actually right in the middle of doing pretty much that. It's what I'm calling my "loser Shepard" playthough where he survives but gets just about everyone killed and leaves the galaxy I'll prepared for the Reapers. However, since I wanted Tali to survive the suicide mission, I withheld the evidence about her father but still urged them to war and allowed her to become exiled. I also plan to have Jack live too (and am in the process of mentally abusing her into being Shep's squeeze.) In the end I intend to have the Quarians set on a foolish war and all the Geth converted to the heretics (I assume not doing Legion's mission means the heretics will upload the virus first.) I'm also going to engineer it so Kelly gets liquefied on the collector base, that only Jack and Tali and Joker survive out of the whole crew and allow IM to keep the base intact. Since I'm doing it with my renegade Shepard, the council is already all human while the Rachni queen is dead and gone on Noveria. That's about as dire a situation as I can think of - though I'm open to further suggestions!

All you missed with Benedict not having romanced Liara was a very touching discussion about how Shepard will be right in the middle of the fray when the Reapers arrive, and Shepard saying that he'll need something special to come back for if he's going to promise Liara to always come back. No sex scene.

Click to expand...

Technically there is a sex scene, you just don't get to see anything. I can't speak for anyone else's experience but Jade Shepard had a little talk about settling down and having lots of little blue children (direct quote) after the Reaper threat is sorted, then they both went all touchy feely and Liara's eye went black and it cuts to later on. So it's implicit, but you don't actually see anything.

Just finished today with a read through of all the dossiers and video playbacks. Some funny stuff in there, especially that reporter getting punched by a krogan. She just never learns, does she?

Click to expand...

It gets better! If you go to another planet and come back there's another video of her jutting kicked in the shin by a Volus. Probably more too, but so far I've only been back the once.

However, I did actually get a line from Thane (I had him and Legion with me at the time) when

the office tower on Illium exploded. Granted, it was something to the effect of "well, that's not good". Legion stayed silent the whole time though, along with Kasumi when we raided the Shadow Broker's ship.

Click to expand...

I had Tali with me and she just exclaimed "Keelah!" So I'd say that it's just using some pre-existing exclamation linefrom each character.

On another note, I started a new playthrough yesterday. I haven't decided on all of the specifics yet, but my basic plan is to have a very dark universe headed into ME3 by the end of this save file. To that end, I started it as a new ME2 character instead of importing an ME1 save, so that the Council and Destiny Ascendant were destroyed, and Udina heads up a new human-led Council. I do know that I plan to turn over the evidence about Tali's father this time, thereby causing uproar among the quarians and I plan to encourage the Admiralty to seek to reclaim Rannoch. I plan on making my ship upgrade decisions based purely on whom I don't want to see die in the Omega 4 Relay Battle, and I'm going to do the same in deciding which loyalty missions to undertake. I'm expecting that I'll destroy the geth heretics this time around, instead of reprogramming. The hardest point is going to be deciding which squad members to keep alive, particularly since I need at least one of them to live in order for Shepard to survive. This also gives me a great opportunity to do my first run with all of the DLC installed, so that I can take those missions on as a regular part of my playthrough (excluding LotSB, which I anticipate doing after the game again due to dialogue tilted towards that assumption).

Click to expand...

I'm actually right in the middle of doing pretty much that. It's what I'm calling my "loser Shepard" playthough where he survives but gets just about everyone killed and leaves the galaxy I'll prepared for the Reapers. However, since I wanted Tali to survive the suicide mission, I withheld the evidence about her father but still urged them to war and allowed her to become exiled. I also plan to have Jack live too (and am in the process of mentally abusing her into being Shep's squeeze.) In the end I intend to have the Quarians set on a foolish war and all the Geth converted to the heretics (I assume not doing Legion's mission means the heretics will upload the virus first.) I'm also going to engineer it so Kelly gets liquefied on the collector base, that only Jack and Tali and Joker survive out of the whole crew and allow IM to keep the base intact. Since I'm doing it with my renegade Shepard, the council is already all human while the Rachni queen is dead and gone on Noveria. That's about as dire a situation as I can think of - though I'm open to further suggestions!

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Did you destroy the genophage data? Becuase that probably won't get the Krogan to help you.

^Haven't done Mordin's loyalty mission yet and I figure if I don't bother then the genophage might be cured and the Krogan will start breeding like crazy and go nuts. Also I killed Wrex in ME1, so the leadership isn't nearly as strong.

[...] That's about as dire a situation as I can think of - though I'm open to further suggestions!

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I think that about it covers it, in terms of galactic importance. Since you want pretty much everyone to die, you have to be especially careful about which loyalty missions you take on.

I'm guessing you're right about the genophage cure research, too. That's how I plan on handling that situation: just ignoring Mordin's loyalty mission.

I haven't decided who my Shepard's love interest will be in this playthrough, either, though I'm leaning towards Jack. Possibly no love interest at all, and making sure Kelly lives so she can dance for me.

I'm probably going to have to come up with a flow chart or something to make sure Tali and Jack survive the suicide mission while everyone else gets killed. I'm not sure which upgrades cause which deaths and I'm not sure if I'll have enough people to "expend" to ensure my chosen two make it all the way. Anyone know if there's a site out there than plots this all out? I'm sure someone has the system all figured out by now.

I'd recommend the Mass Effect Wiki. The ME2 Guide there is packed with detail, including a section on ship upgrades that will tell you (in order of game preference, even!) who will die without which upgrades. Under the suicide mission section, you'll find the recommendations for which squad member should tackle which responsibility (i.e., Tali, Legion, or Kasumi for the vent infiltration, and so on). The ship upgrades information is repeated under that section as well. The whole wiki is quite detailed, really, and for the most part is relatively well-written (there are exceptions, of course, that cause me to occasionally cringe when looking something up).

I'd be interested in seeing a flow chart like that. What team you need to take when you fight battle in the cargo bay. 1 person dies for each of the major upgrades if they're not done. Armor, Shields and Weapons.

Jack would be easy to ensure survival I think. I didn't even do Jacks loyalty mission when i did my insanity playthrough. Jack still made it.

The ending changes the verse in a big way BUT what if a person doesn't get the DLC? come ME 3 will there verse be changed ? and if so will it be explained to that player.

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We don't know for sure yet, but the events of LotSB will most likely be considered "canon" (see also ME2 without importing a ME1 savegame) and may be explained with a few throwaway references. It's all speculation at this point, of course.